During its homecoming festivities, Wayland Baptist University dedicated plaques for five new endowed scholarships with family and friends present.

The scholarships represent funds that have been invested through Texas Baptist Foundation. The interest from those endowments is used each year for scholarships for current Wayland students according to the criteria established by donors.

Scholarships dedicated included the Lee and Alma Anderson Endowed Scholarship, the Judith English Morehead and Richard M. Morehead, Sr. Endowed Scholarship, the Warren Memorial Endowed Scholarship, the Dr. J.H. Wayland Endowed Scholarship, and the David and Myrt Wilder Endowed Scholarship.

Lee H. and Alma Saunders Anderson were long-time members of Grand Avenue Baptist Church in Amarillo, where Lee served as treasurer and Alma helped in the kitchen and was active in WMU. A welder by trade, Lee helped construct Grand Avenue church buildings and helped with maintenance of the property. Alma worked in the dry cleaning industry for many years.

Married in 1929, the couple did not have children but sought to help educate young people in their area. Lee died in 1986; Alma died in 1998.

Judith English Morehead attended Wayland from 1931-33, receiving an Associate of Arts degree. After earning a degree in chemistry from Texas Tech University, Judith returned to Wayland to teach chemistry. She later earned a master's degree and began teaching at Lockney High School and then at McCallum High School in Austin. Richard Morehead, Sr. attended Wayland from 1930-31 and again in 1932. He continued his education at the University of Texas at Austin and worked as a correspondent for the United Press from 1935-42. He worked as a reporter for the Dallas Morning News in Austin, later serving as bureau chief until his retirement in 1980.

The Morehead family has been involved in Wayland's success since the university's beginning. The university's first president, Dr. I.E. Gates, performed the wedding of Richard's parents in 1910, and WBU presented Richard with an honorary doctorate in 1959.

The Moreheads have a daughter, Judith Chapin of Lampasas, and a son, Richard Jr, a doctor in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Graduates of Baylor University, Benjamin Warren and Ollie Belle Barren were married in 1905 and began a long teaching career. After teaching stints at Canadian Baptist Academy and Goodnight Baptist College, Mr. Warren came to Wayland to teach history and served numerous churches on the Plains simultaneously. Mrs. Warren began teaching English, and the two eventually headed their respective departments. He was awarded a doctorate by Howard Payne University in 1950; she received a doctorate from WBU in 1953.

Former Wayland students speak highly of "Pop" and Mrs. Warren, who was known as academically demanding but understanding. She helped lift the academic standing of Wayland while a junior college and later when it reached senior college status in 1947.

The Dr. J.H. Wayland scholarship was established by his granddaughter, Beulah McInnish. Dr. Wayland was born in Missouri in 1863 and came to Texas after graduation from the Kentucky School of Medicine. He practiced medicine in Parker and Hunt counties before coming to Plainview in 1891, opening a practice that covered a radius of 250 miles of unbroken territory.

He founded Wayland Baptist University with a gift of 25 acres of land and $10,000 in cash. He ultimately gave a total of 42 acres of land and $100,000 to help realize his dream of Christian education on the high plains. He strongly believed in integrating faith with academic excellence and his bold, visionary commitment to the institution is the reason Wayland exists today.

David and Myrt Wilder moved to Plainview in 1973 and began a long journey of service to their community and to the university. David managed the trust department of the First National Bank and its successor, Norwest Bank, Plainview. As a trustee of the Mayer Foundation and a leader in the 1994 Spanning the Centuries Campaign, he worked with WBU to complete the Mabee Learning Resources Center in the mid-1990s. He also chaired the Wayland 2000 Plainview Campaign Steering Committee.

Myrt Wilder has served in numerous positions with the Plainview Chamber of Commerce, including president. She was named Plainview's Woman of the Year in 1987. The couple also contributed greatly toward the 1998 construction of a Wayland baseball field, which bears their name today. Their scholarship assists business students and student athletes.